Derek McInnes wants to put Kilmarnock's recent struggles to the side for one week as they eye a return to Hampden.
The Ayrshire side head to Inverness on Friday night in the Scottish Cup quarter-final, with the winner bagging a spot at the national stadium.
And McInnes is aiming to seal Kilmarnock's first ever Hampden double-header in a season, and despite being second-bottom in the Scottish Premiership he will have his full focus on cup glory this week.
He said: “I think the cup is the cup and the league is the league. The league is something we need to address, we know it is there and we know it is something we have to deal with.
“I think we will. Did I think we were going to be where we are? I was hoping we were going to be slightly better in the league, but did I think we had it in us to be outwith the bottom four or five? Probably not.
“I always felt we were going to be in a fight at some point, and we’re still in that fight. I think it’s important to say though that the cups have been something we wanted to try and address here.
“We wanted to bring in some much-needed finance of the club, but also to bring the crowd with us, knock some good teams out and try to make it a really worthwhile experience the cups.
“I don’t just want the cups to be secondary to the league, and I do think we can create that feel-good factor in getting to a semi-final, and I do think in turn that can help your league form.”
He continued: “We are starting to get a few bodies back, Liam Donnelly, Lewis Mayo and Kyle Vassell will be in the squad.
“We will have a cleaner bill of health and we are going to need as many players as possible, and our better players, available between now and the end of the season.
“For now, it’s about dealing with a cup tie and getting to a semi-final.
“That would represent the first time the club has ever got to the two semi-finals in the one year.
“It’s important we have the feeling that we can go and win a cup.
“We are a Premiership team so why not? The bigger picture is trying to actually lift silverware and this is a step towards it.
“It’s a tough step but it’s something we have to deal with and hopefully we can be good enough against a good team."
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